Level 16 - Rainbow in the Dark

Quest Giver: Quest Entry Point gives the quest. Walkup.
Level: 16 Party
Patron: The Twelve (8/16/24)
Length: Very Long
Entry Point:Southwest cliff in the Vale of Twilight. Pic of Route from Meridia
Prereqs: none
Recommended Party: Standard. Trapsmith Recommended. Dimensional Door is nice, too.
Base Experience: 8,433
Quest Info:
--Creatures: Earth Elementals, Rust Monsters, Fiendish Bats, Stone Golems, Stone Scorpions, Bearded Devils, Orthons, Fiendish Troglodytes, Fiendish Scorpions, Fire elementals. Gelatinous Cubes, Shadow, Beholders, Gnolls.
--Traps: Both disarmable and non-disarmable. Spike filled pits, Fire Elemental Trap Rooms, Gelatinous Cube Drops, Lightning Traps

Walkthrough:



The quest opens up into a front chamber with a scepter sitting upon a pillar. This scepter, The Radiant Arc, is both a powerful magical item, and your light source through this very dark quest. The wielder of the Arc should place it in their offhand, so that everyone will be able to see in the dark tunnels ahead. Even should the Arc wielder die, their ghost will continue to give off light from the Arc. (Upon leaving/releasing, the Arc will drop).

Note: it is possible to bypass the need to stay near the Arc Wielder, by turning up your gamma setting in the options panel. Some will cry cheese tactic, others will defend it, or use it to bypass a griefer with the Arc, but it is there, none the less. Don't adjust it, or turn it down, to give yourself a truly RP/immersive run through this fun quest.

Head through the rough tunnels past bats, earth elementals and rust monsters (numbers of which type will vary from instance to instance) until you reach the structured area beyond. The first turn into the ruins will set ya by a possible spike pit, and an Elder Beholder sitting at the entrance. Then head up to the crossroads. Be careful at this point, there is sometimes a "button" on the floor. If stepped on, the small crossroads will slam shut, leaving trapped anyone inside with a group of fire elementals.

Head east first. At the crossroads, if you have a Dimensional Door caster, travel south. If not, first go with your trapsmith (if you have one) further east to check for the trap marked on the map. It is in the area with the gelatinous cube, and isn't always there. After the trap is disarmed, if necessary, head south. Once again, possible lighting traps will be at the end of this hall. Once disarmed, test your luck on the two bonus chests with the falling floor. There is much debate as to whether there is any solution other than luck to this puzzle, none have worked for me yet, so I will leave it to you readers to decide. The hottest thread on the topic is here.

What I usually do is have an evasion type work the puzzle while the others stand back. If the door opens, we all cheer, dance and loot. Then head back north and take the route east from the crossroads to the demon chamber with the scorpion crest. This seldom happens. What usually happens is the floor falls out under the puzzle solver, everyone uptop looks down the hole and chooses a semi-safe path, and hops on down. Take out the earth elemental at the bottom, pluck some gems from the walls, and head east.

You will find yourself above a chamber with demons. We have a couple of strategies here, depending on the difficulty, who is there and what equipment we have. The most efficient thus far is to have an archer with a banishing weapon that doesn't bypass the devil's Damage Reduction snipe from above, and pick them off one at a time. if one agros, we pull it back the hall to the rest of the group and deal with it. if this isn't an option, we will fill the hall up top with crowd control spells and pull them up to us. This way if there is an issue between waves, we can try and get ourselves situated again for the next pull. Once a few waves of demons are dropped, the big Orthon, Agornathy, will come out of the pit. Take him out to lower the barrier around the scorpion crest. Drop down if you haven't yet and pick it up.

If you have a dimension door, now is a good time to throw it down. If you dont, fight your way back west to the original crossroads and open the door west with the Scorpion Crest. Watch out for the trap down this hall if you didn't disarm it. It is a teleport ring that will appear after you kill the cube, it will teleport you to a room filled with fire elementals. Survive the elemental ambush to get out (about 8 elementals). If you die in the pit and no one grabs your stone, there is no way out. Also, if this happens to the Arc Wielder, you will not be able to complete the quest. So be careful!

Head south, kill the Cube, search out the secret doors for the bonus, be careful approaching the shrine, it may be trapped by a fire elemental room like the one described above.

Head south to the next crossroads. Travel west first, to retrieve the silver key and an optional chest. Fight your way past the gnolls, grab the key, head north through the rust monsters, bats and earth elementals if you want the optional chest, but be wary, it is guarded by Memnezerez, a big mean beholder.

Once done there, travel back to the south. be careful of the spike filled pit, it has a trap on the center pillar which will drop a Cube on your head. The box is located on the center pillar. Get everyone across and continue south. At the crossroads, again be wary for a possible "floor button" trap. If you have a trapsmith, consider traveling west first for an optional locked chest. It is past some gnolls down a trap filled hall, marked on the map. Then travel east and unlock the Silver Key locked door.

This will bring you to the Rainbow Puzzle room. Solve the puzzle to lower the barrier over the pillar, and place the Radiant Arc in the pillar to open the door to the final room. (The puzzle is currently optional, though easy. You can skip it and just place the Arc in the pedestal through the barrier, though.) To solve the puzzle, just remember your schooling. Roy G Biv. Red-Orange-Yellow-Green-Blue-Indigo-Violet. Here's a picture.

The final boss, A big red-named Fire Elemental, will spawn when you approach the center brazier. Be prepared for him. Usually a healthy dose of powerful cold spells does the trick.

The final chest will drop The Shavarath Stone of Foresight, one of the five stones needed to flag for the Shroud Raid, and a material component to make Greensteel items. It also has a chance to drop Greenbriar Twigs or Glistening Pebbles, also ingredients for Greensteel.

End Reward: Standard Loot Reward Choice, reward giver is in Meridia Bar, Walther Daedal.

Obtained From:  http://forums.ddo.com/showpost.php?p=1630824&postcount=219